Transforming colleague engagement at Benenden Health

The history

Founded in 1905, benenden was originally created to provide affordable treatment for postal workers suffering from tuberculosis. Today, the organisation provides a wide range of discretionary services to a membership of almost 900,000, while retaining the same affordable and mutual ethos.

The challenges

Declining memberships, changes to the NHS and the prevailing economic climate have all had an impact on the organisation. When benenden announced their aim of becoming the UK’s leading health and wellbeing mutual community, they also unveiled a new long term business strategy. This entailed significant changes to the way they did business, and a re-work of their company values. The organisation subsequently faced the same challenge faced by countless business of all shapes and sizes, all around the world: how to take their colleagues on that journey, and engage them in the new strategy.

Our task

Our goal was a straightforward one: increase employee engagement specifically with regards to the new business plan.

What we delivered

Distilling the key messages from the business plan, we created the Big Picture campaign: a metaphor for the organisation’s past, present and future. The illustration provided the basis for a 90 minute presentation at Benenden's annual gathering.

We created a suite of tools to support the presentation, including a detailed facilitator pack designed to help the presenter truly understand the key messages. We included suggestions for making the session interactive, and numerous supporting materials such as feedback cards and stick-on 'values'.

Expanding on the organisation's values

The outcome

We understand the importance of measurement: before the event to provide a baseline, and after the event to provide a measure of success. To that end, we carried out pre- and post-event surveys. In our survey following the presentation, 100% of respondents in admin and member services agreed that they understood the business plan –an increase of 33%.

Thanks to our strategic internal communications expertise, the high calibre of our written work and our attention to detail, our work has made a real difference to benenden, taking their colleagues on a crucial journey. It’s only the beginning for them, but we’ve forged a relationship that will see Limehouse undertaking more and more work for benenden.